Evolution of through-thickness texture gradients in various steel sheets

In order to investigate the evolution of through-thickness texture gradients in various ferritic steel sheets, samples of a deep drawing steel, a ferritic stainless steel and a low carbon steel were deformed by cold rolling with and without application of a lubricant during the deformation process. The hot band texture of all samples examined showed notable through-thickness texture gradients. The evolution of the cold rolling texture in the ferritic stainless steel and the low carbon steel in a solution-treated state was nearly independent of the lubrication during rolling. However, in the deep drawing steel and the as-received low carbon steel, the lubrication played an important role in the formation of the through-thickness texture gradients. Whereas the samples rolled with lubrication showed uniform textures throughout the sheet thickness, in the samples rolled without lubrication pronounced shear textures were observed on the sheet surface. The evolution of these through-thickness texture gradients is discussed in terms of inhomogeneous strain states computed by an FEM model.